Liquoro di alloro - Laurierlikeur – Bay leaf Liqueur (GF-DF)

My father pruned his laurel tree this weekend and after a lovely family meal I went home with a bag full of fresh, very nice scenting, bay leafs.
I use bay leafs in soups or as part of a bouquet garni and in the Indian kitchen. With all those smells in the house I suddenly remembered a recipe of liqueur from fresh bay leafs.
So at the moment I have a bowl filled with leaves infusing in gin and in about 2 weeks the recipe will be finished.
I am curious about the taste, I never had a bay leaf liqueur before, but what I read in French cooking books it’s a digestive, so to be taken after dinner, for better digestion.

The recipes I found are all slightly different, so I decided to try and find out.
The basics are all the same but the times of macerating and ripening vary.
We’ll see.

Bay leaf liqueur (1 l)

½ l vodka or gin
30-40 fresh bay leafs
1 cinnamon stick
zest of an organic lemon

½ l water
350 g sugar

Put the first 4 ingredients in a clean glass jar, close the lid and leave it macerating for 2-4 weeks. The longer the more infusing, I guess. Shake once in a while.

After these weeks we start by making a sugar syrup.
Pour the sugar in the water and bring it to the boil, boil it softly for 5 minutes, keep on stirring till the sugar is completely dissolved. Let the syrup cool completely.

Remove the bay leafs from the pot and sieve the liquid through a coffee filter or a cheese cloth. Return to the pot and pour in the cooled sugar syrup. Give it a shake and let it rest for at least 1 week. Then pour the finished liqueur in a nice bottle and it’s ready to serve.
You can keep it for 2 years!

                                           Home Made, Yvette van Boven

Laurierlikeur (1 L)

½ l wodka of jenever
30-40 verse laurierbladeren
1 kaneelstok
geraspte schil van 1 biologische citroen

½ l water
350 g suiker

Doe de eerste 4 ingrediënten in een weckpot of andere grote glazen pot, sluit af en laat 2-4 weken intrekken. Hoe langer, hoe sterker, denk ik.

Na deze weken maken we eerst de suikerstroop: giet de suiker bij het water in een pan en breng aan de kook. Kook 5 minuten zachtjes door terwijl je steeds roert. De suiker moet helemaal opgelost zijn. Laat de suikerstroop afkoelen.

Haal de laurierblaadjes uit de pot en zeef de inhoud door een koffiefilter of een stuk kaasdoek. Giet de inhoud terug in de pot en meng met de afgekoelde suikerstroop. Laat nog minimaal 1 week rusten voor je de likeur overgiet in een mooie fles of karaf.
De laurierlikeur is 2 jaar houdbaar!